Archive for July, 2009

Manon writes:
 
My sixteen year old girl has been having quite bad stomach problems for the last couple of months with extensive bloating, gas and either constipation or diarrhea. She is a vegetarian and eats very healthy, grains, wholemeal, basmati rice, veg and fruit. She also has dairy products. All this has never bothered her before. She has done a detox for 5 days eliminating gluten, wheat and dairy products. Not sure whether it helped because she was blocked up all the time. Grape juice did seem to help. She is now back on her normal vegetarian diet and still has similar symptoms. Do you have any suggestions at all for her?

Michelle replies:

I suspect that your daughter isn’t producing enough enzymes to digest her food properly.  When chyme (partly digested food) moves from the stomach into the duodenum, the pancreas is stimulated to produce enzymes.  These enzymes pour onto the chyme and are responsible for digesting proteins, carbohydrates and fats.  If there are insufficient digestive enzymes present, then food cannot be properly digested which would lead to the symptoms you describe as bacteria and fungi thrive on this partly digested food matter.  You can see that although a good diet is crucial, if your daughter is not producing enough enzymes, even if she ate a perfect diet for her particular body, food would not be digested in the manner the body requires for uptake at the cellular level.

I would be so interested to put your daughter on my theratest machine as I would then be able to work out if this issue was due to inherited genetics and whether her body is having problems digesting proteins, fats, carbohydrates or all three.  I suspect both proteins and fats are an issue as protein issues tend to result in constipation and fats in diarrhea.  Interestingly, I could also work out where the body is dumping this partly digested food and discuss other symptoms she may be experiencing at the same time.  Other factors which may be taken into account would be things such as stress and food intolerances. 

I hope this brief reply has sufficiently answered your question. 

Kind regards
Michelle